Door dovetail



May 23, 1933. H, T THOMAS 1,910,372

DOOR DOVETIL Filed Allg. 31, 1931 l N VE NTOR Hoff/c5 7. fwn/m5 ATORNEYS Patented May 23, 1933 UNITED staresv PATENT oFFicE HORACE T.THOMAS, 0F LANSING, MICHIGAN, ASSIGNOR TO REO MOTOR OAR COMPANY, ACORPORATION OF MICHIGAN DOOR DOVETAIL Application filed August 31, 1931.

This invention relates to door dovetails of the type conventionallyemployed in connection with the body of motor vehicles, the principalobject being the provision of a door dovetail of simple construction andeilicient operation.

Other objects of the invention are to pro-V ,to provide a door dovetailincluding a pair of opposed metal rollers at least one ofY which isresiliently urged in one direction whereby to enable the male member tobe gripped between them, and to provide a door dovetail in which a fixedabutment is provided for supporting the weight of the door and aresiliently pressed roller is provided for maintaining the male memberof the dovetail in contact with the abutment when Vthe door is closed.

A further object is the provision of a door dovetail male member havingan integral dowel member projecting therefrom and which is adapted to bereceived in a cooperating opening in a door whereby to positively iix itagainst shifting relative to the door.

The yabove being among the objects of thepresent invention, the sameconsists of certain features of construction and combina- Vtions ofparts to be hereinafter described with reference to the accompanyingdrawing and then claimed, having the above and other objects in view. f

In the accompanying drawing which illustrates a suitable embodiment ofthe present invention, and in which like numerals refer to like partsthroughout the several different views,

Figure l is a partially broken, partially sectioned face view of a doordovetail assembly showing fragments of an automo- Seral No. 569,368.

bile body and an automobile body door associated therewith, the malemember ofthe dovetail being shown in aposition in which it is about tobe projected between the rollers of the female member.`

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view, taken on the line 2-2 ofFig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a horizontal sectional view taken on the line 3-8 of Fig. 1.

Fig. l is a view similar to Fig. l showing a slightly modified form ofconstruction.

Door dovetails as conventionally employed today in connection with thebodies of automobiles usually include a female member including a pairof opposed members resiliently urged toward each-other and between whichthe male member is? adapted to be forced when the door is closed inorder to maintain it and the door, with which it is associated, fromvertical movement relative to the body. The construction of the femalemembers of such door dovetails as conventionally employed is usuallysuch that in forcing the male member home, rubbing friction is set upbetween the male member and the opposed members of the female memberand, due to the fact that such opposed members must grip the male memberwith considerable force in order to be effective in operation, itusually takes ccnsiderable force to overcome the friction referred to.In fact, the friction is usually so great that it takes such a largeamount of effort to overcome it in opening a door that often times it isonly with great difficulty' that a small person, and particularly awoman, is able to open the door. The present invention includes aconstruction which largely eliminates such objectionable fric-V tionbetween the parts, without lessening the eHectivene-ss of result inoperation of the dovetail.

Referring to the drawing, and particularly to Figs. l, 2 and 3, a doordovetail female member is indicated generally as at A and a male memberindicatedv generally at B. Female member A includes an openr facedbox-like member l0 forming a casing and supporting structure andpreferably formed from sheet metal in anyV convenrelatively closelyreceived.

tional manner. Attaching flanges 11, preferably integral with the member10, project upwardly and downwardly from the upper and lower endsrespectively of the part 10 in the general plane of the open sidethereof. Nut members 12, suitably secured to `the flanges 11, areprovided for the reception of screws 13 which are shown as beingthreaded through the wall 14 constituting part of a door pillar to whichthe female member A is secured and which serves als a closure for theopen side of the female member A except for that area necessarily leftopen for the reception of the male member.

The back face ofthe box member 10 is reinforced by a relatively heavyplate 1G welded or otherwise suitably securedto the exterior y facethereof.

A trunnion member. 17, positioned within the lower part ofthe box-likemember 10, is provided with a reduced end 418 which projects throughanopening 19 in the back wall of the memberl() and the reinforcement plate1G and is .rigidly fixed therein by riveting overitsv projecting end.rl`he opposite end of the trunnion member 17 is provided with a reducedend 20 which serves as a dowel and which projects through opening 21 inthe wall 14 into which itis Rotat-ably received on the trunnion member17 between the back wall of the box member 10 and the wall 14 is aroller 22 preferably formed of e", hardened metal, which serves as anabutment to limit downward movement of the male member whenassociatedtherewith.

Vertically slidably received between the back wall of the box member 10and the nlwall 14 at the vupper end of the box member 10 lis an invertedchannel-shaped carrier member 25. The carrier member 25 is substantiallythe same length aspthe `interior width of the member 10l and is therebymain- `tained against substantial movement in the direction of itslength, and beingV of subst-antially the same width as the distancebetween the wall 14 and the back wall of member 10 is maintained againstsubstantial movement in the direction of its width.

l Between the upper face of the carrier member 25 and the interior faceof the upper end of the member 10 a resilient member 26, shown in theform of a rubber block, is located. I

Tof hardened metal, the 'roller 28 being of such size as to projectslightly' below the lower edge of the carrier. The trunnion member 27 isprovided at itsV rear end with a reduced extension 29 which projectsthrough a' vertically elongated slot 30 inthe -waidlywvill cause therubber block 26 to be compressed and to resist such upward movement;

As in conventional constructions, the wall 14 of the door pillar is cutaway as at 35 centrally of the female memberA in order to provide forthe insertion of the male member into the female member.l The malemember B shown is, for the most part, of conventional constructionincluding an attaching flange portion 36 Vand projection portion 37which is adapted to be received by the female member. In the particularcase shown the portion 37 is of substantially equal thickness throughoutexcept at its entering end where it is rounded 0H to facilitate itsentrance between the Vrollers 22 and 28. 1 j j I-Ieretofore it has beenthe practice, in securing male members of door dovetails to theirrespective doors, to simply secure them in place by screws, bolts or thelike. In service it has been found that such screws or bolts graduallywork loose, due to the vibration ei'ic'ountered in service, eventuallyallowing the male member to shift on the door and to a great extentrendering the function of the door dovetail inoperative. In accordancewith the present invention I form on the back face of the flange portion36 of the male member an integral dowel 38, and form in thecorresponding wall 39 0f the door an opening 40'which relatively closelyreceives the dowel 38 and thereby rigidly maintains the Vmale member Bagainst shiftingv relative to the door. I

thenemploy screws such as 41 as conventionally employed and in theconventionalv manner for securing the male member B to thel door and toprevent disengagement of the dowel 38 with the walls of the opening 40.

In the construction above described the rollersV 22 and 28 are sopositioned, when the ymale member is not received between them, that thedistance vbetween their adjacent surfaces is substantially less than thethickness of the projection 37 of the male member. When the projection37 is forced between the rollers 22 and 28, the projection 37, becausethe roller 22 is fixed against movement except in a rotationaldirection, is carried up and over the roller 22 and at the'same time isforced below the roller 28.

The roller 28 in being forced upwardly carries with it the carrier 25and upward movement of the carrier 25 will obviously cause a compressionof the rubber bloclr 26 which will tend to force the roller 28downwardly and thus cause the projection 37 to be firmly but resilientlygripped between the rollers 22 and 28. Because of the fact that therollers 22 and 28 are preferabl 1 formed of hard metal, although this isnot understood to be essential in all cases, and because the rollers arefreely rotatable upon their trunnions, there will be extremely smallamount of friction set up between the projection of the male member andthe rollers when the projection is forced between them, and acorresponding small amount of friction will. be apparent when theprojection 37 is withdrawn from between them, and this withoutsubstantial regard to the amount of force exerted by the rubber block26. Accordingly, it will be apparent that with my improved constructionthe male member and consequently the door will be firmly supportedagainst relative vertical movement upon the lower roller 22, will befirmly maintained in such position by the upper roller 28 through theforce exerted upon it by the rubber block 26, and that the resultingstructure will necessitate a relatively small force to withdraw theprojection 27 from between the rollers 22 and 28.

The construction illustrated in Fig. 4 is similar to that illustrated inthe previous figures with one exception and, accordingly, similar partsare indicated by the same numerals in Fig. 4 as in Fig. 1 with theexception that such numerals bear a prime mark. The only differencebetween the construction illustrated in Fig. 4 and in the precedingfigure is that in Fig. 4 the lower roller 22 and its supporting trunnionhas been eliminated and in its place has been substituted a rigid block42 which may be of hardened or other metal or may be formed of someanti-friction material, such as graphite impregnated fabric, or of someother non-metallic material such as bakelite. lVhere such bloclr 42 isformed of anti-friction material an efficient structure is providedwhich has substantially all of the advantages of the constructionheretofore described with the exception that it is not as easy tooperate as the above described construction.

Vhile I have described the male member as being carried by the door,.andthe female member as being carried by the door pillar, which isconventional practice, it will be apparent that these parts may bereversed relative to the door and the door pillar without affecting thenormal operation thereof, and while for the purpose of ease inexpression in the following claims the male membermaybe described asbeing secured to the door it will be understood that such claims laretobe interpreted in such a manner as to permit either method of assembly.y

Furthermore, although I have shown the metalofthe door pillar 14 asserving to close the open face of the member 10, which is conventional-practice where such pillars are of all metal construction, it will beapparent that wherethe dovetail is to be employed-'on wooden pillars aseparate face plate will be provided to talre the place of the wall ofthe pillar 14 in the construction shown, all of which is in accordancewith conventional practice.

' Formal changes' may be made in the specilic` embodiment of theinvention described without departing from the substanceA and spirit ofthe broad invention, the scope of which is commensurate with theappended claims. y i

I claim: f v

l. In a door dovetail, in combination, a casing, f non-yielding abutmentthereon, a carrier vertically slidable in said casing above saidabutment, a substantially nonresilient roller carried by said carrierand exposed below the same, and resilient means for urging said carrierdownwardly.

2.*In a door dovetail, in combination, aV

casing, a non-yielding abutment thereon, an inverted U-shaped carriervertically slidable in said casing above said abutment, a roller carriedby said carrier between the opposite sides thereof and exposed below thelower face thereof, and resilient means for urging said carrierdownwardly.

3. In a door dovetail, in combination, a casing, a non-yielding abutmentthereon, an inverted U-shaped carrier vertically slidable in said casingabove said abutment, a trunnion extending between opposite sides of saidcarrier, a roller on said trunnion, and resilient means for urging saidcarrier towards said abutment.

4. In a door dovetail, in combination, a casing, an abutment thereon, aninverted U- shaped carrier vertically slidable in said casing above saidabutment, a trunnion extending between opposite sides of said carrier, aroller on said trunnion, resilient means for urging said carrier towardssaid abutment, and means for limiting downward movement of said carrierrelative to said casing comprising an extention on said trunnionreceived in a slot in said casing.

5. In combination, a door having a metal side edge, a door dovetail malemember, an integral dowel on said male member, said metal side edgebeing provided with an opening therein fitting said dowel, meanssecuring said male member to said door, a female dovetail memberincluding a casing and an abutment supported thereby against verticalmovement and adapted to receive said male member thereon for side edgeof said door.

6. In combination, a door having a metal side edge, a doorfdovetail malemember, an integral doWel on said male member, said metal side edgebeing provided with an opening therein fitting said doWel, meanssecuring Said male member to said door, a fev male dovetail memberincluding a casing, an abutment supported thereby against vervsupportingthe tical movement and adapted to receive said i flo male member thereonfor supporting the side edge of said door, a carrier vertically slidablein said casing above said abutment, a substantially non-resilientabutment carried by said carrier and exposed below the same,l andresilient means' for urging said carrier downwardly resiliently tomaintain said male member in engagement with said firstnamed abutment.

HORACE T. THOMAS.

